AP

Posted: 2007-12-03 08:25:13

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) – Military-ruled Myanmar said Monday it would restrict drafting a new constitution to a government-appointed panel, in an apparent rebuff to a push by the United Nations to open the process up.

Information Minister Brig.-Gen. Kyaw Hsan described as “no longer appropriate” suggestions that any new or outside body review the principles for a new constitution adopted in September by a National Convention, whose delegates were almost all hand-picked by the military.

Kyaw Hsan said if the review was opened up to other parties, “it will be never-ending and the process will get further complicated.”

“No assistance or advice from other persons is required,” he said, adding that the constitution drafting commission already included legal experts and law graduates of various ethnic groups.

The U.N. has urged the government to make political reforms after large pro-democracy demonstrations in September were violently suppressed, with at least 15 people killed and thousands detained. Myanmar’s police chief said Monday that 80 people remain in detention.

A U.N. special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, made two trips to Myanmar to promote political reconciliation, and urged a reconciliation process that was all-inclusive not solely in the hands of the military.

After the suppression of September’s protests, international pressure increased on the junta to reach some accommodation with the country’s pro-democracy movement.

Kyaw Hsan spoke at a news conference to mark the start of the work of the 54-member Constitution Drafting Commission, whose work represents the third stage of the ruling junta’s seven-step “Road Map” to democracy, which is supposed to lead to a general election at an unspecified future date.

The government has long insisted it will make democratic reforms only according to its own plan, describing its goal as “discipline-flourishing genuine multiparty democracy.”

The road map’s first stage – the National Convention – began in 1993 and was completed only three months ago. Government critics consider the charter drafting process is a sham, designed to keep the military in power.

The adopted guidelines for a new constitution call for the military to maintain a prominent role in politics, and its provisions on eligibility would bar detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from holding elected office.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party won a 1990 general election, but the military refused to allow it to take power.

The Constitution Drafting Committee, established in mid-October, is chaired by Chief Justice Aung Toe, with Attorney General Aye Maung serving as vice chairman. A number of other officials, retired doctors and professors also serve on the body.

Speaking at the same news conference Monday, national police chief Brig, Gen. Khin Yi said 349 protests took place around Myanmar between Sept. 17 and 30. He said that 2,927 people, including 596 monks, were detained in connection with the protests, and that just 80 people, including 21 monks, remain detained.

Kyaw Hsan said the protests were the result of “pre-arranged plot to create unrest.” He described the demonstrations as “trivial” for the whole country, and charged that the international media exaggerated them in a manner that harmed Myanmar’s image.